Nepal to get 300 mw more electricity from India: Official

India has agreed to export an additional 300 MW electricity to Nepal within one-and-a-half years through various cross-border transmission lines, a senior Nepali official said on Friday.

The development came in the wake of Nepal reeling under a huge power deficit and citizens facing over 14 hours of outages.

The understanding was reached following a meeting of energy secretaries from both sides that concluded here on Friday.

"As per our understanding, within one year, we will import additional 200 mw electricity from India through the dedicated Mujjafarpur-Dhalkebar transmission line that has capacity of 400 kv," Nepal's energy secretary Suman Sharma said at a press briefing after the meeting.

The joint standing committee meeting of energy secretaries of Nepal and India here agreed on the import of 80 MW of electricity from the Dhalkebar-Mujjafpur cross-border transmission line within the next three weeks.

Also, the meeting agreed on the import of more power via the same transmission line, with the decision of initiating processes necessary for operating the line in a full-fledged capacity by December, 2017.

Nepal and India have constructed 400 kv Mujjafarpur-Dhalkebar to import and export of energy.

Within next three weeks, Nepal will import an additional 80 mw from India from the same transmission line, said Sharma. This transmission line will be fully functional by 2017-end where Nepal can import 300 mw electricity from same transmission line.

Mujjafarpur-Dhalkebar transmission can export and import of 1,000 mega watt (mw) of energy but Nepali side does not have sub-station on its side. Thus, Nepal cannot import electricity as much as it requires.

The meeting also decided to upgrade two existing lines by 2016. It also decided to install six cross border transmission lines of 400 kv and complete a master plan of installing such six power corridors by June.

Nepal and India had signed a Power Trade Agreement in 2014 September that has paved the way for energy trading between the two nations.

Both the nations have geared up for setting up infrastructure targeting 2035 for construction and energy trading aiming to export and import over 20,000 mw of hydroelectricity.

Nepal and India have formed a joint technical team to find a way out to do energy business, lay down the future road map, required infrastructure and others.

P.K. Pujari led the Indian delegation.